Chapter 3: The Trial

[King V]

"That's an equally stupid idea. If the culprit tied the rope to the other end of the bowl, then the handrail there would've suffered damage as well, but that handrail is perfectly fine."

"If neither of the delusional quartet members was wet, then there is no reason to suspect either of them. We already know that the culprit must be wet due to the trails of water on the carpet in the clash complex. All elevator uses from before the knock on the door are accounted for, and after the knock on the door we know that the culprit already received the note that Pierrick had left. This means that there was no room for Pierrick to return and leave the trails of water, thus the culprit must have been the one who left the trails of water when they returned to the apartments to leave notes for the delusional quartet."

"Although this leaves this witness confused about something. There were only 3 notes mentioned that were left for the delusional quartet, but aren't there 4 members of the quartet in total? Why did the culprit not leave a note for the 4th member? Someone explain and this witness will consider not killing you off."

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Day: "I thought we went over this. As we mentioned previously, the culprit probably needed to get everyone, or at least some people, into the central sewer so that they weren't the only wet or damp person."

-Day nods to himself-

Day: "If they wanted that, they clearly were aiming to trigger the body discovery announcement. Presuming the culprit did not perform a CIRCUS as suggested by Mishy, they almost assuredly went into the bowl after Pierrick died. If we know that, we can assume the culprit confirmed the death of Pierrick, which is the requirement for a culprit to be one of the three who triggered the announcement. After they climbed out they probably realized they were wet and couldn't dry off effectively so they came up with a plan to get the others wet. They started slipping notes under the doors of the...quartet... to try and get enough people into the sewer to trigger the announcement. They gave the first one to Satone and probably waited longer because they didn't come out of their room. Then Rikka, then Yuuta, not waiting as long since they left very quickly. After those two left, since it was enough to trigger the announcement the culprit stopped trying to send notes, thus leaving out Shinka, and headed to the sewer for the gun show."

[King V]

"Hmm... this witness is not convinced. The notes are one thing, but setting up a fake gunfight in the middle of the sewers, while knowing that there are two people around who could actively spot you at any time requires more risk than simply leading the two people directly to the corpse. There must be another ulterior motive to the gun conspiracy, and it must be an extremely stupid motive because this witness cannot find any reason why the gun conspiracy even exists."

"But first, let's eliminate all externalities. Would all male members of the cast please separate and subjugate yourselves to a search and a constant watch. Most people here are already wet, but perhaps there are a few that are not, and perhaps the culprit still has something on them that hasn't been revealed yet. This witness wouldn't want something like a soggy note slipping past everyone again."

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Day: "You are free to search me if you so desire."

Lloyd & Yuuta: "Me too."

-Shinka scratches her head-

Shinka: "Isn't it possible the gunfight was just a way to force the body discovery? As you say, if they were confident the body discovery announcement would occur there is no reason for them to setup the gunfight and they could hide upstairs after leaving the notes to avoid being spotted."

-Ryo continues massaging his temples as he chimes in-

Ryo: "Probably because people could be stupid. If he sent two people down and only one of them noticed and ran back up that would be a worst case scenario. That person could start actively alerting people about the body without the announcement going off. The lack of people rushing out as one and potential one on one scenarios as people are being woken up would make obscuring being wet almost impossible."

-Ryo slams his fist onto the counter in front of him-

Ryo: "I bet the whole purpose of the gunfight was to put them on edge and then cause the splash sound. Anyone who was paying attention in the sewers would know pretty much anything that falls into the water ends up in the center. They use the laughter and gunshots to make them start paying attention and after doing that they threw the rifle into the water, both to hide it and to cause a splash. Probably wanted the two of them to think someone had been shot and fallen into the water, resulting in them going to investigate."


-Itriot steps forward-

Itriot: "To save time and effort, no one here is currently hiding evidence on their body relating to the crime which would assist in deducing the culprit! Everyone here is wet to some degree. No one is dry, excluding myself, Cessair, and Silver Mask."

[King V]

"This witness has just gotten a great idea about how to identify the culprit. We know that the culprit is male, and they also rushed down into the sewers when they received a note that Pierrick would be killed. Therefore, the culprit must care a lot about Pierrick if they would risk their own lives to run down into the sewers to try and save him."

-RIN draws a stick figure and labels it "Pierrick" with a bunch of silly looking jester bangles. Then she pulls out her dagger-

"That's why, in order to prove your innocence, this witness proposes that all males step forward and stab this cartoon Pierrick with a dagger! If you do not care about Pierrick, you should have no problem doing this!"

-RIN pins the drawing to the wall with her dagger and gestures for people to start heading forward-

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Lloyd: "I mean, the person in question supposedly killed Pierrick, kind or not, so I am afraid this exercise is pointless, but oh well. Itriot do you have something I could use?"

-Itriot nods and walks off. He returns a few moments later carrying some daggers exactly like those in your rooms, but without numbers-

Itriot: "I will return these to their location once we finish, so if you want one to keep you will need to find where they are."

-Lloyd shrugs and takes one, Caster, Yuuta, Ryo, and Day follow suit. Lloyd reaches the rather poor drawing and stabs it before walking back to Itriot and giving back the dagger. The others follow suit with no to minor comments-

-Caster makes no comment and just stabs the picture before winking at Rin-
Yuuta: "This is slightly silly." -Yuuta pokes the drawing and returns the dagger-
Ryo: "And one more for good measure." -Ryo stabs the fake image twice with gusto-
Day: "What an unnecessary show." -Day sighs before poking the dagger through the drawing-

[John Dark Souls]

Mishy stares at everyone doing exactly as they are told in disgust.

"Looks like, its only Mishy left who still doesn't want to accept this unreasonable death game. Kill to win. If you lose you die. If you wanna survive, you have to kill. That's why everyone so far killed. And that's why you will throw out all your convictions and beliefs and just do as you're told in order to live another day, huh. How disgusting... Falling as low as disgracing dead just to try to make yourself seem even a little less suspicious to an unreasonable girl when its clearly a completely pointless action. Or is it because you didn't like Pierrick that much? Sure, he wasn't the best person you could find here, and he did attempt to lure out somebody and commit a murder. But how were his actions any different from what you are doing right now? They are not! You are no different from him in slightest! Mishy is though! Mishy will not stab that picture! You can call Mishy culprit all you like. If culprit couldn't even stab a picture, there is no way they would be able to kill victim."

Mishy looks at robed figures.

"But Pierrick is certainly dead, killed by somebody, and that somebody must be culprit who is one of us, right? Or else this trial would serve no purpose, right?"

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

-Cessair steps forward and responds to Mishy-

Cessair:"That is correct. The Culprit is the person who Killed Pierrick and that person is one of you all. Of that there is no doubt. If the victim was killed by someone who isn't a participant of the game then there would be no Trial. Just like when I killed that one person when we all met for the first time."

[King V]

"This witness noticed something interesting just now. Did none of you use your numbered daggers to stab cartoon Pierrick?"

"Why is that? Is it because the culprit, after receiving the note must've gone down into the sewers knowing that something might be afoot. Therefore, the culprit must have been armed with something. The easiest weapon to have access to is everyone's numbered daggers here. There is only one bloodstain that's been found in the sewers, and it doesn't look like it was made from a gunshot. It's unlikely that Pierrick would've used one of the stakes he had carved as a weapon when he still had his dagger on him, and no other potential weapons have been found. So the culprit must have used their numbered dagger to stab Pierrick, thus causing the bloodstain."

"Well, it's probably pointless considering that the excess water would've washed away any traces of blood by now, but... just in case, this witness requests that all suspects come forward and stab cartoon Pierrick again, this time using your numbered daggers!"

-RIN makes a gesture at the drawing of Pierrick again-

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

-Day shakes his head-

Day: "Lets skip the theatrics with the paper. You can look at my dagger in a normal way."

-Day pulls out his Dagger, followed by Caster and Ryo. Lloyd looks over at them and shrugs his shoulders-

Lloyd: "Sorry, I left my dagger upstairs and had it stolen during the initial rounds of people lock-picking rooms. I still haven't recovered it."

[Exusiai]

"Y-Yeah, Lloyd's dagger went missing long before this trial, but it's plausible that someone could have found the missing dagger before the day of the murder too.
Aside from Lloyd's dagger, I can also confirm that Axel's dagger had also went missing before the second trial.

It shouldn't require any additional tools to find Axel or Lloyd's daggers based on the last time I saw them.
Of course, I haven't checked whether the daggers are still where I last saw them since Owen's. . . death."

"As you can see, I still have my room dagger."

Despite his height, Nanashi makes his best attempt to brandish the dagger above his head with both hands.


"I'm not sure what stabbing a. . . drawing (?) of Pierrick would prove.
It's a bit uncomfortable, since you're insinuating that we have to stab it to prove our innocence, but even I could stab a sketch of myself without hesitation.
I-It'd be much harder if it were a gift from someone, though."

The boy quizzically examines the paper before lowering his dagger towards the stick figure labeled as Pierrick.
Nanashi taps the paper with the dagger only for no cuts to appear; his confusion doubles at this before repeating the action.
 Again and again, he's met with the same result.
It's fairly obvious to any bystander who's familiar with a knife that Nanashi is using the blunt end of his dagger.

[King V]

"This witness has reviewed the evidence. Now begins the accusations."

"This witness accuses Dayz of being the culprit. There are two main reasons for this. The first is that according to my current theory, Pierrick must have at one point given the culprit a note for them to venture into the sewers. The last ones up the elevator at 10m were Dayz, Lloyd, and Nanashi. Therefore, one of these three would have been most suitable for Pierrick to give the note to, as the others were more likely to be asleep and not notice the note."

"Lloyd has shown that he doesn't possess his dagger, and no other weapons have come to light. Venturing into the sewers without a weapon would be extremely foolish, so Lloyd probably isn't the culprit. Nanashi would be the most likely person to see the note, as they went down to the 3rd floor right before Pierrick went down to the sewers, and would be the best suited person to see the note. However, this witness will accuse Dayz for a different reason."

-RIN points at Dayz-

"It's a very simple reason. This witness reviewed the evidence from memory, and something seemed off. After the delusional quartet had revealed each of their notes, there was no need to pass them around the room. However, Dayz, you were the one who suggested that we should pass the notes around, leading to the inclusion of the 4th note. This is an action that the culprit would take in order to dispose of the condemning evidence on their person. For suggesting this line of action, Dayz, this witness accuses you of being the culprit."

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

-Day takes a moment to think before responding-

Day: "Its quite hard to reject that accusation since it is relying on some rather coincidental points. After all, with my position and how the notes moved, if I had slipped in the last note, only Lloyd would have had to miss it before Satone received all four and noticed."

-Day's brow furrows as he ponders-

Day: "In that case, allow me to make another accusation to potentially even out the suspicion. I propose Lloyd is the culprit, because he didn't have a weapon. That lack of weapon allows for a different theory."

-Lloyd raises his eyebrows in surprise-

Lloyd: "Really?"

-Day nods and continues-

Day: "Lloyd was missing his dagger true and perhaps that would lead him to not go to the sewer, but we have no evidence that anything other than the stakes hurt Pierrick. Its unreasonable to expect any of us to have known about the stakes, plus I imagine Pierrick would have hidden them so that whoever went down wouldn't see them. The culprit went down and found Pierrick. I presume they had some confrontation that led to Pierrick getting tossed into the sewer water."

-Day nods to himself, more assuredly now-

Day: "Indeed, I suspect that is exactly what happened. The victim pushed Pierrick in the struggle and Pierrick fell into the water. I propose this happened south of the Central sewer, the side where the walkway was damaged. I believe the rope had been placed there for easy access in and out of the Central sewer's bowl. Pierrick, aware of this, attempted to catch himself using it as he was swept into the sewer, but his weight and the sudden force applied to the rope caused the walkway to snap. Pierrick was unable to stop and crashed into the stakes at almost full speed. This would of course be what killed him."

-Day looks over to Rin-

Day: "Sure, you could swap me or any of the suspects out for Lloyd in this case, but considering we all had weapons, specifically daggers, I doubt we would have caused Pierrick to get pushed into the water, not without obviously injuring him with our daggers. There were no wounds on Pierrick that matched with anything other than the stakes after all."

[King V]

"That theory has a rather large hole in it, gunman. You haven't accounted for the bloodstain that Satone found in the southern sewers. Clearly this bloodstain was made as a result of a struggle, if Pierrick had been pushed into the water and killed as he hit the stakes, then there would be no bloodstains."

"This can mean one of two things. It could mean that the culprit themselves were wounded, in which case this witness would ask that everyone immediately be searched for wounds. Or it would mean that the culprit had a weapon on hand to defend themselves, and would have wounded Pierrick. No weapons have been found linked to the murder except for the guns, which we have already discussed are most likely part of an elaborate distraction, the stakes, which it would be unlikely for Pierrick to have been carrying around when he had his dagger on him, and it would be unlikely for the culprit to have found, and finally the numbered daggers which everyone possess."

"Unless there is someone here who has clearly been wounded, or a different type of weapon is found which could cause the bloodstain, this witness stands by their accusation of Dayz being the culprit."

[The City [EclipseZwolf]]

Day: "It could very well still be Pierrick's blood. If the culprit used some means to transport it then it likely wouldn't be impossible to get some of Pierrick's blood to that point. The positioning still lines up with the 'fake' gunfight so I find it likely the culprit placed that blood there intentionally. Perhaps the small amount is indicative of how difficult it would be to move even a little blood from the central sewer to the tunnel."

-Day looks around-

Day: "I don't see anyone here as obviously injured and if you would like to search me please feel free, as I have already offered to let you do that."